May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s online spending is
showing a “clear slowdown” as fears over the Greek economy and
a lull between new models of Apple Inc.’s iPad choke off the
appetites of consumers, National Australia Bank Ltd. said.

Spending on household goods and electronics shrank 5
percent in April from a year earlier, the biggest slowdown for
the category in 16 months of records, the bank said in a report
today. A total of A$11.1 billion ($11 billion) was spent online
in the 12 months through April, it said.

Consumers were “closing their wallets” as fears over the
fallout from the crisis in the euro zone economies made
households reluctant to make large purchases, Alan Oster, NAB’s
Melbourne-based chief economist, told reporters on a conference
call today. An April drop-off in sales of the new iPad, whose
first worldwide sales were in Australia March 16, may also have
contributed to the decline, he said.

Annual growth in online spending slowed to 16 percent in
April from the 19 percent pace recorded in March, the report
said. Purchases from websites amounted to about 8.3 percent of
all non-food retail spending, it said.

A recent decline in the value of the Australian dollar,
which has fallen 8.5 percent against its U.S. counterpart since
March 1, may slow purchases from overseas websites, Oster said.

“Clearly as the dollar comes down there may be an element
of that,” he told reporters.

Australian consumer confidence has had a negative reading
in seven of the past 10 months, indicating pessimists outweigh
optimists, according to a survey by Westpac Banking Corp. and
the Melbourne Institute.

Woolworths Ltd., Australia’s largest retailer, fell 1.6
percent to close at A$26.26, the biggest drop since March 19.
Premier Investments Ltd., the largest operator of small-format
specialty stores, declined 1.4 percent to A$4.78, the lowest
level since Jan. 27.